Three Pakistani policemen have been killed and another was critically injured when unidentified gunmen on a motorbike opened indiscriminate fire on them in Sindh province’s Hyderabad city.

The three policemen were killed and their colleague injured when they were on patrol duty in a police car last night in the suburbs of the Latifabad township.

The injured was rushed to a hospital.

“Masked men on motorcycles opened indiscriminate firing on the police mobile killing three of them on the spot while another has been critically injured,” DIG Sanaullah Abbasi said.

“These killings of policemen could be a retaliation to the ongoing operation against terrorists in North Waziristan,” Abbasi told reporters in Hyderabad after visiting the injured policemen in hospital.

He said apart from Karachi, at least 25 police personnel had been targeted in Hyderabad in the last few months while another 12 were killed in other parts of Sindh.

In Karachi, around 91 policemen this year have been killed in the targeted killings.

The killings in Hyderabad came hours after the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, single largest party in the region, held a massive rally in front of the Quaid-e-Azam mausoleum in Karachi to express solidarity with the the army and its operation against militants in North Waziristan.

The paramilitary Rangers had Saturday shot dead two suspected Tehreek-e-Taliban militants in Karachi.